2023 Hurricane, Tropical Storm Names List Posted For The Atlantic Season

FLORIDA — Ahead of the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration has released the list of names that will be given to tropical storms and hurricanes during the season which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30.

There is some irony in having Lee as a storm name after Lee County was pummeled by the category 4 hurricane in late September, leveling buildings and killing more than 150 people from Cuba to Virginia. Most of the storm fatalities were in the Sunshine State; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement says 102 deaths in the state were caused by Ian.

This year, Floridians will be hoping to avoid run-ins with:

• Arlene
• Bret
• Cindy
• Don
• Emily
• Franklin
• Gert
• Harold
• Idalia
• Jose
• Katia
• Lee
• Margot
• Nigel
• Ophelia
• Philippe
• Rina
• Sean
• Tammy
• Vince
• Whitney

Last year's season spawned two hurricanes that make landfall in Florida with the never-to-be forgotten names Ian on Sept. 23 and Nicole on Nov. 7.

Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms had been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center. They are now maintained and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.

The six lists are used in rotation and recycled every six years. For instance, the 2022 list will be used again in 2028.

The only time that there is a change in the list is if a storm is so deadly or costly that the future use of its name for a different storm would be insensitive. If that occurs, at an annual meeting of the WMO committee, the offending name is stricken from the list and another name is selected to replace it.

Several names have been retired since the lists were created. These include Andrew (1992), Charley (2004), Dorian (2019), Elena (1985), Florence (2018), Floyd (1999), Fran (1996), Frances (2004), Harvey (2017), Ida (2021), Irma (2017), Laura (2020), Maria (2017), Matthew (2016), Michael (2018), Katrina (2005) and Sandy (2012).

If a storm forms during the off-season, it will take the next name in the list based on the current calendar date. For example, if a tropical cyclone forms on Dec. 28, it would take the name from the previous season's list of names. But if a storm forms in February, it would be named from the current year's list of names.

If more than 21 named tropical cyclones occur in the Atlantic basin in a season, any additional storms will take names from an alternate list of names approved by the WMO for each basin.